But Rebus had no intention of doing that. 'Saturday morning,' he said, 'in the corridor outside the interview rooms – do you remember?
You were back in uniform and ready to say your goodbyes.'
'I remember.'
You told me I needed to get the Saab's boot fixed.' Rebus looked at his passenger. 'Haven't got round to it yet, by the way.'
'Despite having time on your hands.'
Rebus started to laugh, but then ceased abruptly. 'Thing I was wondering is… how did you know?'
'Know what?'
'About that dodgy boot of mine – I've asked Siobhan and she doesn't recall saying anything to you about it. And I'm pretty sure it never cropped up when you and me had our various chats.'
'That night at the Todorov murder scene,' Goodyear explained.
Rebus nodded slowly. 'The very conclusion I came to. You were already there at Raeburn Wynd when Shiv and me arrived. Meant you saw us getting the crime kit out of the car, saw me failing to shut the boot properly.'
'So what?'
'Well, that's what I'm not sure of. But here's what I am sure of. Your grandad was put away with my help, and when he died it pulled your family apart. That sort of thing leaves a pain that can last for years, Todd. Your brother Sol went off the rails with the help of Big Ger Cafferty. You knew the rumours about me and Cafferty… Siobhan confirms that you were asking her about us.
She feels bad about that actually…'
'Why?'
'She thinks maybe it was all because she told you I hated Cafferty's guts. To your way of thinking, that put me in the frame as Cafferty's assailant.' He paused. 'Oh, and she also feels a bit guilty for bringing you into the team in the first place – feels she was suckered into it – because you managed to hide your ulterior motive.'
'Where are we going?' Goodyear had a hand on his radio. It was attached to his shoulder by a clip and kept crackling with static noise.
'See, I've talked it through with her,' Rebus was saying. 'She says it makes sense.'
'What does?'
'That night of the party, I got talking to Sonia…'
'So you've said.'
'The night Cafferty was attacked, you said you were heading off to meet her.' Rebus paused again. 'She didn't seem to remember that. Besides which, she said it was your idea to look beneath the footbridge.'
“What?'
'She found that overshoe because you told her where to look for it.'
'Now hang on…”
'But here's the thing: you weren't even there at the scene, Todd.
Way I see it, she maybe called to say she was headed to a job at the canal. That's when you told her to check the bridge – you knew there was a bridge and you knew what she'd find underneath it.'
'Stop the car.'
'Going to report me for abduction, Todd?' Rebus gave another cold smile. 'DI John Rebus and Big Ger Cafferty – your family's biggest enemies, as far as you were concerned… and suddenly you saw a way to get revenge on one of them while implicating the other. You reckoned there was a chance my prints would be on the overshoe. Could have taken it from the boot any time you liked. There were three of us outside the Ox that night, Todd – you, me and Siobhan. We all knew where I was headed… no one else did. You hoofed it after me, waited till Cafferty was alone, and crept up behind him. Siobhan tells me you were shocked to learn there'd been a surveillance on Cafferty. If I hadn't tricked Stone away from the scene, he'd have had you bang to rights.'
'Rubbish,' Todd Goodyear spat.
'Doesn't really matter one way or the other, since I can't prove a single bloody word.' He turned towards the young man again.
'Congratulations – you're getting away with it, Todd. Must mean the Big Man's looking out for you.'
'I look out for myself, Rebus – me and my family both.' The tone of voice had changed, hardening along with the look in Goodyear's eyes. 'I'd been thinking about Cafferty for a long time. Then, when Sol got stabbed, it really started to rankle – thinking of how different things could've been for my folks. I knew you were close to Cafferty, so had to get close to you.' He was staring at the road ahead. 'Then you told me you'd been the one in the witness box,
the one who'd worked so hard to put my grandad away, and suddenly it all seemed to connect. I could take out you and Cafferty both.'
'Like I say, an eye for an eye.' Traffic ahead was thickening.
Rebus eased his foot off the accelerator. 'So you must be feeling pretty good now – cleansed, vindicated, avenged, all that sort of stuff…'
'“I am pure from my sin.”'
'Another of your Bible quotes?' Rebus nodded to himself slowly.
'That's all well and good, but it's not enough to save you – not by a long chalk.'
'Red light,' Goodyear stated. Meaning that they had to stop at the junction ahead. With the car stationary, Goodyear pushed open his door.
'I was planning on visiting Cafferty,' Rebus told him. 'Thought maybe you'd want to see him again. Doctors say he's improving.'
Goodyear was out of the car, but when Rebus yelled his name, he leaned down into it again.
'When Cafferty comes round,' Rebus told him, 'the first face he's going to see is mine… and guess what I'll be telling him? Better watch your back, Goodyear – and your front, if it comes to that.
Cafferty may be a lot of things, but he's not the sort of coward who'll whack you from behind.'
Goodyear slammed the door shut just as the lights turned green.
Rebus pushed his foot down on the accelerator, watching in his rearview as Goodyear fixed his cap back on to his head. He was staring at the car as the distance between them grew. Rebus exhaled noisily and wound the window down a little. He'd got the garage to connect his new iPod to the stereo. He pressed 'play' and turned up the volume.
Rory Gallagher: 'Sinner Boy'; all the way to Cafferty's hospital bed.
Siobhan Clarke was waiting for him there. 'Did you talk to him?' she asked. He nodded, eyes on Cafferty's seemingly lifeless form, the regular bleeping and blinking from the machines providing slivers of reassurance. The gangster had been moved from intensive care, but bringing all the peripheral equipment with him.
'I hear your team drew,' Rebus commented to Clarke.
'Two up till the seventieth sodding minute… not that I was taking much of it in.'
'Well, you were a bit busy with Stuart Janney – no confession yet?'
'It'll come.' She paused. 'How about Goodyear? Is he going to own up?'
Todd knows better than that.'
'I still can't believe I-'
'Hell with it, Shiv, how were you supposed to know?' Rebus seated himself on the chair next to hers. 'If it's anybody's fault, it's mine.'
She stared at him. 'Want any more weight on those shoulders?'
'I'm serious – things went wrong for Todd and his family from the minute the grandad was sent down, and I helped that happen.'
'That doesn't-' But she broke off as he turned towards her.
'They found Class A in that pub, Shiv, but Todd's grandad wasn't shifting anything half that serious.'
'What are you saying?'
Rebus gazed at the wall opposite. 'Back then, Cafferty had cops on his payroll, guys in CID who'd plant whatever he told them to.'
Tou…?'
Rebus shook his head. 'Thanks for the vote of confidence, though.'
